complaint<\/a>, also filed by DOJ, the FTC says Edmodo violated the COPPA Rule by failing to provide information about the company\u2019s data collection practices to schools and teachers, and failing to obtain verifiable parental consent. The COPPA Rule requires online services and websites directed to children under 13 to notify parents about the personal information they collect and obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection and use of that information.<\/p>\nUntil approximately September 2022, California-based Edmodo offered an online platform and mobile app with virtual class spaces to host discussions, share materials and other online resources for teachers and schools in the United States via a free and subscription-based service. The company collected personal information about students including their name, email address, date of birth and phone number as well as persistent identifiers, which it used to provide ads.<\/p>\n
Under the COPPA Rule, schools can authorize collection of children\u2019s personal information on behalf of parents. But a website operator must provide notice to the school of the operator\u2019s collection, use and disclosure practices, and the school can only authorize collection and use of personal information for an educational purpose.<\/p>\n
Edmodo required schools and teachers to authorize data collection on behalf of parents or to notify parents about Edmodo\u2019s data collection practices and obtain their consent to that collection. Edmodo, however, failed to provide schools and teachers with the information they would need to comply in either scenario as required by the COPPA Rule, according to the complaint. For example, during the signup process for Edmodo\u2019s free service, Edmodo provided minimal information about the COPPA Rule to teachers\u2014providing only a link to the company\u2019s terms of service and privacy policy, which teachers were not required to review before signing up for the company\u2019s service.<\/p>\n
Those teachers and schools that did read Edmodo\u2019s terms of service were falsely told that they were \u201csolely\u201d responsible for complying with the COPPA Rule. The terms of service also failed to adequately disclose what personal information the company actually collects or indicate how schools or teachers should go about obtaining parental consent. These failures led to the illegal collection of personal information from children, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
In addition, Edmodo could not rely on schools to authorize collection on behalf of parents because the company used the personal information it collected from children for a non-educational purpose\u2014to serve advertising. For such commercial uses, the COPPA Rule required Edmodo to obtain consent directly from parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Edmodo also violated the COPPA Rule by retaining personal information indefinitely until at least 2020 when it put in place a policy to delete the data after two years, according to the complaint. COPPA prohibits retaining personal information about children for longer than is reasonably necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected.<\/p>\n
In addition to violating the COPPA Rule, the FTC says Edmodo violated the FTC Act\u2019s prohibition on unfair practices by relying on schools to obtain verifiable parental consent. Specifically, the FTC says that Edmodo outsourced its COPPA compliance responsibilities to schools and teachers while providing confusing and inaccurate information about obtaining consent. This is the first time the FTC has alleged an unfair trade practice in the context of an operator\u2019s interaction with schools.<\/p>\n
Proposed Order<\/h2>\n The proposed order with Edmodo includes a $6 million monetary penalty, which will be suspended due to the company\u2019s inability to pay. Other order provisions, which will provide protections for children\u2019s data should Edmodo resume operations in the United States, include:<\/p>\n
\nprohibiting Edmodo from conditioning a child\u2019s participation in an activity on the child\u00a0disclosing more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in such\u00a0activity;<\/li>\n requiring the company to complete several requirements before obtaining school authorization to collect information from a child;<\/li>\n prohibiting the company from using children\u2019s information for non-educational purposes such as advertising or building user profiles;<\/li>\n banning the company from using schools as intermediaries in the parental consent process;<\/li>\n requiring the company to implement and adhere to a retention schedule that details what information it collects, what the data is used for and a time frame for deleting it; and<\/li>\n requiring Edmodo to delete models or algorithms developed using personal information collected from children without verifiable parental consent or school authorization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe Commission voted 3-0 to refer the civil penalty complaint and proposed federal order to the Department of Justice. The DOJ filed the complaint and stipulated order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n
NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>The Commission authorizes the filing of a complaint when it has \u201creason to believe\u201d that the named defendant is violating or is about to violate the law and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.<\/p>\nThe lead FTC attorneys on this matter are Gorana Neskovic and Peder Magee from the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer protection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Official news published at https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/news\/press-releases\/2023\/05\/ftc-says-ed-tech-provider-edmodo-unlawfully-used-childrens-personal-information-advertising <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Trade Commission has obtained an order against education technology provider Edmodo for collecting personal data from children without obtaining their parent\u2019s consent and using that data for advertising, in violation of the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule), and for unlawfully outsourcing its COPPA compliance responsibilities to schools.\u00a0 Under the proposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[373],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t \n\t\t